The fourth installment of The Purge lands a July 2018 release

Despite the last installment of THE PURGE franchise seemingly wrapping up many of its major plot points, Blumhouse isn't about to put the highly profitable series to bed just yet. Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions and Platinum Dunes announced today that a third PURGE sequel is due to hit theaters on July 4, 2018.

James DeMonaco, who has written and directed every film in the franchise, will be back to pen the script but has no plans to direct this time around. Instead, he will assist the producers in finding another director to take the helm of THE PURGE 4. We don't yet know what the film will be about, but DeMonaco has previously said that he would like to go back and see how the Purge first came into existence.

I would actually go back and I would try to talk about how it all started. That seems the natural next chapter in this, is to say, 'Alright, we've done this trilogy. We see how it got to this point of someone trying to end it - this presidential figure. Now let's go back and see how the fuck all this came about.' How did this country get to a place where we were now accepting this kind of atrocity, this terrible thing, each year? I think there's something interesting in that.

Unfortunately it looks like Frank Grillo, who played the bad-ass Leo Barnes in THE PURGE: ANARCHY and THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR, doesn't seem up to returning for a third time. Although he's greatly appreciative of the franchise, Grillo says that he "thinks he's done" as he doesn't want to "stay at the party too long" and would rather go out on top. Should THE PURGE 4 go the prequel route, this wouldn't be a problem, but Grillo isn't about to burn any bridges, saying that if they "came up with a great idea, then I think I would do it."